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Full-time American workers labor the equivalent of nearly an additional day each week, averaging
47 hours instead of the standard 40, according to Gallup poll results released yesterday.

Just 42 percent of full-time employees work 40 hours a week, the traditional total based on five
9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. workdays, Gallup said of findings it released ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

Nearly the same percentage — 39 percent — say they work at least 50 hours a week. And almost 1
in 5 Americans, or 18 percent, said their workweek stretched 60 hours or more.

“The 40-hour workweek is widely regarded as the standard for full-time employment, and many
federal employment laws — including the Affordable Care Act, or ‘Obamacare’ — use this threshold to
define what a full-time employee is,” Gallup said.

“However, barely 4 in 10 full-time workers in the U.S. indicate they work precisely this much,”
Gallup said.

Salaried employees work an average of 49 hours a week, compared with

44 hours for people paid by the hour. A quarter of salaried workers said they spend 60 or more
hours a week on the job.

The overall 47-hour average workweek has held roughly steady for 14 years, Gallup said.

But the percentage of workers with full-time employment now is 43 percent, down from about 50
percent before the Great Recession.

The results are based on surveys of 1,271 adults in Gallup’s 2013 and 2014 Work and Education
Survey.